good afternoon and we are live from nbc's democracy plaza on this tuesday, november the 6th, 2012, election day is here. if you have done your duty, then sit back and enjoy the show, but if you haven't and i'm breaking a major television rule here, stop watching, get out and vote. ♪ >> are you fired up? >> walk with me, walk together. >> we feel confident we've got the votes to win. >> who are you voting for? >> i think you know. >> are you going to get a win tonight? >> i think we are. feel good about it. >> i'm feeling pretty good. >> are you fired up? >> tomorrow we begin a new tomorrow. >> four more years.

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are you ready? >> are you fired up? >> i love this country. i love you, women. >> and i love you. >> i'm barack obama, you know, the president? >> are you fired up? are you fired up? >> i'm not familiar with precisely with exactly what i said but i stand by what i said whatever it was. >> today is the day and it is down to you, america. voters across the country are casting their ballots and in less than three hours the first polls will close and the results will start to come in. the president and his challenger have battled it down to the wire criss-crossing the nation,

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throwing rhetorical punches, pressing the flesh and losing their voices. after his last campaign event last night in iowa, the president is now in chicago where he visited a campaign office and played some hoops today. an election day tradition, of course, hoping to reprise the celebrations of four years ago. but six years into his second presidential campaign, mitt romney is desperate for more time. just touching down in pennsylvania, and earlier making a last-minute dash to ohio wf his number two paul ryan. i guess they just couldn't wait to get back to that local favorite wendy's. and as if you needed to know the importance of ohio, guess who was on the same cleveland tarmac? that would be vice president joe biden after voting this morning in delaware. after the polls, the ads, the rallies, conventions, the debates, zingers, flips, flops, and all the gaffes, it's all come down to this day and, my, what a ride it's been.

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>> i like being able to fire people. >> contraception can cost a woman over $3,000. >> slur a slut, right. >> purple mountains. severely conservative. >> like an etch-a-sketch. >> morning y'all. >> lift the shadow of deportation. >> basically upheld the health care law. >> eliminate obama care. >> all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation -- >> there are a few things that were disconcerting. >> mitt romney. >> i did not make a mistake with this guy. >> my veins run with cheese. >> what do you mean shut up? >> 47%. >> pre-existing conditions are covered under my plan. >> a very spirited fellow who claimed to be mitt romney. >> take action. >> binders full of women. >> we also have fewer horses and bayonettes. >> at least stage three romnesia. >> who are you voting for? >> i think you know. >> are you fired up? >> fired up, indeed. just a few choice moments there from an epic campaign. let's go to nbc's kristin welker on the scene in chicago.

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kristin, it's been quite a ride. we saw the president getting teared up last night in iowa. apparently he's been playing some basketball. will it be a slam dunk tonight do you think? >> reporter: well, the obama campaign certainly thinks it will be. they say they are feeling confident about their chances, martin in large part because they say their get out the vote strategy is in place, it's superior to the republican get out the vote strategy. that's what democrats are saying. they like what they have seen so far in terms of early voting, but president obama trying to squeeze the last minutes out of this election day. he stopped by one of his campaign headquarters and urged supporters to get out and vote. really stressed the importance of turnout. that is what this election will be determined by after all. he also is granting a number of interviews to local stations really targeting key battleground states telling one local station in milwaukee that he believes he does, in fact, have the votes to win. vice president biden was in ohio today. that is really the cornerstone of the president's midwest

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firewall. they know they need to hold onto ohio if they want to hold onto the presidency. >> kristin, romney is making last-minute stops today in ohio and pennsylvania. any nerves about that from the obama camp, from the president's camp? >> reporter: well, one top obama adviser called mitt romney's last push into pennsylvania fantasy. so that is what they are saying to reporters. however -- >> that doesn't sound too worriying, does it, fantasy? >> reporter: on the other hand, they sent former president clinton to pennsylvania and vice president biden was in ohio today so they make the point they're not taking any of these states for granted. >> kristin welker there reporting from where else but with the president. thank you so much. let's get right to our panel. with me at democracy plaza is msnbc political analyst karen finney and salon's joan walsh, author of "what's the matter with white people?" a question she can answer later in the broadcast.

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karen -- >> or tomorrow morning. >> karen, in britain the three "c"s are the church of england, the conservative part, and cricket. but today the three cs are cleveland -- >> and let's hope it's not the fourth "c," chads. >> it comes down to this state. >> it comes down to ohio, part of why you saw the president there with bruce springsteen. so, yeah, it will. i think the turnout is what we're looking for and to see where the turnout is, how the lines are moving, making sure -- that's where we've deployed the most resources in terms of lawyers and others to make sure that things move smoothly. >> 2,200 lawyers in the state alone. joan, mitt romney's tour of lies has not finished because ed gillespie appeared on the "today" program this morning and he continues to claim that the jeep lie is an accurate advert. they have continued this lying

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throughout the campaign. if the president wins, does that mean that it's a victory for the truth? >> yeah, i think that's exactly what it means, martin. and i think it will be a victory for the truth. the only thing that bothers me about today is i think those of us who are democrats, and i am, would be having a much calmer day if it wasn't for our concerns about voter suppression. the only way that they win if they win is going to be because we've had voters standing in line for seven or eight hours in florida. we've had the secretary of state of ohio making last-minute decisions that are very questionable. you know, i heard our colleague andrea mitchell today call these lines to vote a poll tax and that's what we should all be talking about. if it was not for their efforts to suppress our vote, we would be sipping tea and talking about cricket today, but these things concern me and i think we're going to have a conversation after, i hope, the president is re-elected about how to guarantee people equal protection of their voting

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rights. >> it is absolutely staggering. joining us now is professor michael eric dyson who is in chicago. professor dyson, messrs. romney and ryan suggest re-electing the president will threaten the judeo-christian foundations of america, as you know, but isn't the truth that if we don't re-elect this president, then 50 million people will lose their health care, 23 million americans will lose the only assistance they have, and when they repeal dodd/frank, wall street just down the road from here will go back to the criminal and fraudulent practices of the past. that's the real apocalypse, isn't it? >> that is the real apocalypse and as an ordained christian minister for the last 30 years, i can tell you if what mitt romney and paul ryan represent are the judeo-christians, i have just now converted to islam. the reality is in america that we are part of a tradition that ought to be concerned about the least, the lost, the lonely, those who are vulnerable. are jesus said visit those who are in prison, deal with the widow, talk to those who are

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poor heal the lepers. it seems president obama has carried out an agenda of social justice entrenched in. >> you d. >> you dayow christian reason. this suggesting he's not part of the jesus movement so against the idea of openness. jesus said heap stones of fire, coals of fire upon their head by forgiving and loving them. i think we should do this after we win the election and return to mitt romney and paul ryan and ask where is your jesus now? on the side of those who are victorious and powerful. >> how can you follow that? >> here is how i'm going to follow that. it was paul ryan's budget as a catholic that the bishops said was immoral. for them to use that against president obama just shows you the despicable level to which they have been willing to go in

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this campaign. you know, chris matthews made an important point earlier today, if you notice on the democratic side, no one, but no one, has used mormonism as any kind of weapon against mitt romney. it has not been an issue in this campaign. the other side cannot say that. >> that's true. joan, this panel's resident expert on white people, you have written this magnificent book. >> that's what happens. >> what are you expecting from the paler shade of americans because i read your piece today, and it kind of left me quite depressed. >> well, i think we can't generalize about the white vote, martin. the optimistic thing i will say is young white voters are supporting the president and it's very regionable. the south is lost to him and that's tragic but let's put that aside for a moment. assuming the president wins ohio, he will win because of the support of working class whites and a majority support from working class white women. there are places where he has white support and there are

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places where he doesn't. you know, ron brown stestein do lot of great write being this. he cited a poll among white people who are afraid of racial change, they're giving their votes -- two-thirds of their votes to romney. among white people who welcome it, they're going 3 to 2 for president obama. there is an element of fear. there's absolutely an element of racism. but i think he's going to hold the line on the white vote. i don't think mitt romney is going to have -- be going away with 60%, 65% like he needs to 37. >> to your point, professor, do you think romney and ryan have encouraged what joan has just explained and explains in her piece today? >> absolutely right. i think the reality is this, that they have exacerbated racial tension. they have not spoken directly to it. to john mccain's credit four years ago when people tried to make barack obama appear to be un-american or really other than human, he stopped that. he spoke directly to it and

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said, no, this is not true. he was across the aisle. he's a deeply and firmly committed republican, and yet he said this is not what represents america at its best. i cannot say the same thing for governor ryan and -- governor romney and congressman ryan. they have not in any way decisively put an end to this dialogue that would suggest that because barack obama believes differently than they do ideologically or politically, somehow he's outside the pale of their christian belief. the real religion in america is not mormonism versus evangelical christianity, it's about whiteness. what joan walsh is talking about here is that whiteness is a signifier of political identity. it's not a pigment reality. it's not about the epidermis fetish of white supremacy. white people themselves are victims of white superiority first because it's not true and secondly because mitt romney has already said what he believes about 47% of white people.

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>> that's absolutely true. >> he's made you -- you are a symbolic black person so get in with us. you might as well cast your fate with us. >> very quickly, karen. >> let's hope a broad coalition of americans re-elect president obama so then it's something we can all forget about. that is unity. >> joan walsh, karen finney, michael eric dyson, thank you. we're just getting started. stay with us on msnbc throughout the evening for our special election coverage tonight. next, which moment from the race for 2012 would mitt romney most like to forget? stay with us. ♪ above the fruited plain ♪ america america god shed his grace on thee ♪ ♪ and crown thy -- ♪ god shed his grace on thee ♪ and crown thy good with

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we are just a few hours from polls closing on the he's east coast. if you haven't registered your vote, please do so right now even if you have to stop watching our broadcast. if you have already done so, then cast your mind back to june the 2nd, 2011. that's when willard mitt romney declared his candidacy for the highest office in the land. unemployment was at 9.1%, and with his voluminous wealth and

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the presidency seemingly on the ropes, it seemed like mr. romney could start measuring up for drapes and the car elevator at the white house, and yet that's not the majority prediction for today. so what happened in those 17 months? joining me here in democracy plaza is ari melber, correspondent for "the nation" and dana milbank, a political columnist for "the washington post." thank you for being here. i think it was arthur mill mother said in the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line. how crooked has romney's campaign been and what effect has that had on the voters? >> i'll tell you, i think spinning is pretty common in politics. >> i'm talking about lying. >> well, if this were a national race and we were talking about some of the general spinning it wouldn't look necessarily all that different from some other misleading campaigns. the problem for mitt romney starts with the lies in ohio. i think if we're talking about

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politics and what actually hurt him and what is going to potentially derail his candidacy tonight given what we know about how crucial ohio is, it was lying to the people in that state about their jobs, about jeeps, about how these cars are produced and after being called on it, he doubled down and he lied to them again. i think that really soured whatever he might have had going in that crucial state. >> dana, romney had trouble connecting with the average person. we have put together a sample of some of mitt's greatest hits in that area. take a listen. >> corporations are people, my friend. i like being able to fire people that provide services to me. i'm not concerned about the very poor. we have a safety net there. if it needs repair i'll fix it. 27% of americans pay no income taxes. a whole binders full of women. >> dana every time romney opened his mouth, he seemed to confirm the perception of him as unable to comprehend the problems of an average american person.

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>> right. i think you should put that clip to music, martin, and there are many more. you could really have a full-length -- you could have a full-length opera with all the things he's done in this campaign. now, i would say that -- i mean, it's hard to believe that it's only been a year and a half because there have been so many incarnations of mitt romney to get to the one that we're going to see on the stage here in one manner tonight. i think his difficulties began a long time ago and that was in the form of rick santorum and rick perry and newt gingrich forcing him to become a much more conservative candidate than he needed to be or presumably wanted to be but what he had to do to win the nomination and what we've seen in the last six months or so since then is his efforts somewhat halting to walk away from all of that. now, the election is -- people are still voting right now. this man could still be the next president.

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we have to keep that in mind but it's been a torturous route to get to this evening. >> indeed. ari, we talk about mitt romney as a character, but people say you can tell a man by the company he keeps. if i introduced you to a man who is endorsed by individuals as grotesque as donald rumtrump, a poison us as john sununu would you say that man was on the way to the white house or is that the kabs of a snuff movie. >> the problem was the clown car of the republican party, that was the sort of first test of mitt romney's ability to stand up for himself and his own record, and then as you say, in the general election what we saw was basically an embrace of some of the uglier elements of the republican party. >> the ugliest. >> and that i think goes to the future, which is if mitt romney does not win and we have to just wait and see what americans decide, that's what's so great about today because we don't matter, the public matters and they'll let us know what they've

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decided. but if mitt romney loses, there is going to be a reckoning for a political party that has spent so much time demonizing the very people it needs to build a majority. you cannot become president of the united states when you lose over -- by 30 points among latinos as mccain did and if you believe the early indications of this race, it looks like mitt romney faces a similar deficit. so it's not only wrong, right? we know that and you have called that out in principle and that comes first, but then we also analyze democracy and how it works and what we see in democracy is it doesn't serve you well to denigrate so many of your constituents. >> dana, can you write off 47% of america in may and then tack back to the center come november and hope that 100% of the voters will embrace you? >> well, it's a country where just about anything is possible and before i break into the strains of "america the beautiful," you have to say it's

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unlikely that all of those 47% will forgive him, and many in the 53% will say that is not what we want from our leader. now, he has tacked back very sharply, particularly in the closing days wanting to be the president for all americans. it's a question of how many people will accept that sudden change. >> indeed, dana milbank of the "washington post," ari melber of "the nation," thank you both, gentlemen. stay with us. we have much more from democracy plaza ahead, but first a look at some of the poll closing in just a few hours and a reminder that some states do have split time zones. we'll be right back. a cup of joe is a sedan. a cup of johan is a 600 horsepower sports coupe that likes to hug curves. ♪ your curves. smooth, rich, never bitter, gevalia. [ male announcer ] the way it moves.

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now that's like sunblock before or sun burn cream later. oh, somebody out there's saying, now i get it! take beano before and there'll be no gas. take beano before we'rwith questions fromtump sombing elections.kies do you know where your polling place is? maybe somewhere around my house. mine's just, right over that way. well you can find out exactly where it is using bing elections. it's a good day for politics. which way do you lean politically? conservative. republican. well, using the bing news selector you can find news from whichever way you lean. (together) social on this side, financial. which party is currently predicted to win a majority in the senate? the republicans? would you make a bet on that? no. are you chicken? msnbc is the place for politics, and there is simply no other place to be tonight. rockefeller center has been transformed into democracy plaza, and it is from that legendary new york location

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from a final day on the campaign trail to all four candidates feeling fine here is today's "top lines." and the winner is -- >> just hours left in the 2012 campaign. both candidates are pulling out all the stops. >> do you have a favorite team. >> new england patriots, i take full responsibility for their two super bowles. >> political reportser are like sports reporters, you lose a game and you're a bum.

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you win a game and you're a god. >> all of my feeling is where my concern are. >> i have 99 pounds but it ain't one. >> only thing better than one jersey guy is two jersey guys. it was great to talk to the president, even better to talk to bruce. >> i'm looking around to see if we have the beatles here or something. >> you took this campaign and made it your own, block by block. >> this is where our campaign began. your primary vote put me on the path to win the republican nomination. >> young and old and rich and poor and black and white, latino, asian, native american. >> america's moment of renewal and purpose and optimism. >> i've got a lot more fight left in me. i need you to still have some fight in you, too. >> if there's one thing we know for sure is elections have consequences. >> obama care coming down the track. i mean, that's the end of america. >> this is obama's katrina. >> americans are afraid to say they're voting against obama because they'll be accused of racism. >> your boss promised hope and change and he didn't deliver.

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>> i think you attributed only positive tough to mitt romney and you said barack obama didn't get anything done. >> comes down to this, one day. >> who are you voting for? >> i think you know. >> i feel pretty good. >> i feel great. >> last time you're going to vote for yourself? >> i don't think so. >> it's a great tradition. >> congratulations on a spirited campaign. looking forward to the results. >> feel great about ohio. >> expect that we'll have a good night. >> there's a lot of technical jargon in there. the candidate who has more voters is going to win. >> let's get right to our panel now. with me is ana marie cox of "the guardian," little anliana gil v and krystal ball my colleague. before i say anything else, i want to say i love you women. >> yeah! >> on a serious note, mitt romney tells us america is inches from the apocalypse, we're going to lose our freedoms

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and our foundation of our judeo-christian religion. >> i did write about that -- >> i read that. that's why i'm asking. >> when people get apocalyptic, i guess i believe in the country more than you do. we've had a pretty solid run. we've had republican presidents and democratic presidents. we've made a lot of mistakes but capitalism has somehow survived. during the great depression the top income tax rate was 90%. you know what? we're still like buying stuff that's different off of the shelves. we don't have a lot of brand "x." we're not a socialist country. >> so no armageddon. >> no armageddon. >> okay. krystal, let's stay with this for a moment. the president -- let's say the president is victorious. the senate remains democrat, the house remains republican, what happens in relation to people like john boehner who for the last few years and, indeed, his fellow compatriot and mr. eric

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cantor have obstructed this president from achieving anything. >> there's good news and bad news. the good news is because of the way the fiscal cliff, a term i don't like but i'll use, is structured, things have to happen. the bush tax cuts have to expire. something has to happen there. unemployment insurance, the payroll tax cuts, sequestration, these are all things that are going to happen if nothing happens. so there is some impetus for something to happen regardless of house republicans' intentions. the bad news is as bad as the house republican caucus has been, it is likely in this election to get worse, more -- >> worse? >> more ideological, more people who have been reasonable retiring, more far right tea party zealots getting elected, so i have little hope in terms of sort of bipartisan comity, but i think the president will be in a better position to get things done. >> of course, he won't have to run for re-election during this campaign so mitch mcconnell

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won't have to deny him that. litt as you look back at mitt romney, has refused to say whether he supports the president's proposal which is allowing the children of illegal immigrants to remain in the country and not pursue them for deportation. was that self-deportation comment the most damaging thing for him in relation to latino voters? >> i think the most damaging thing, not just for mitt romney, but for the party as a whole was the way the, you know, candidates early on were trying to be so conservative and appeal to the far right and not lose their base that some of the things that were said earlier on before he was the republican candidate are now backfiring to him and we remember. self-deportation makes absolutely no sense. get back into the line makes no sense. but at the same time you're hearing a rhetoric of we want to

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find solutions. marco rubio has this great plan. i still wish i would have seen it or maybe they would have disclosed it. and now when -- >> that was a mistake. romney could have taken that up. >> he could have taken that and he said it in many places. he said it here, you know, at nbc that he has a solution but we haven't seen it. he needs to start tempering his fear of scaring his own base and realizing that it makes more strategic sense to appeal to the fastest growing segment of voters in this country which is latinos. >> anna marie, we were talking about a potential apocalypse and you quoted capitalism. we've heard some fears about socialism taking over if the president is re-elected. take a listen to this. >> sooner or later in a socialist society, you come up against the ceiling. you have a class background to be and you have an economic no-growth society. there's no opportunity. the exact opposite. >> there's no "jersey shore" in

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england where kids can come out of nowhere and become famous. >> apologize i'm a fellow countryman of that individual. i apologize for him. >> apologize for the other one. >> indeed, but he says there's no "jersey shore." there actually is a "jersey shore" show in the uk. >> well, there's that and also i'm not sure if you want to put forward that as a up from nothing kind of path for a lot of young people. the problem is that actually we do have problems with economic mobility in this society and it's because of our lopsided form of capitalism. it's a form of capitalism that favors the rich over and over, favors korm favors corporations over and over. monetary inequality has increased in the united states and countries -- the studies find that countries that have the greatest income inequality are the countries that are the hardest to move up in. >> they're actually the least happy in terms of the population. >> yes, exactly. so a little bit of socialism kind of mixed in there when you do enough to kind of lessen that gap, you actually get more social mobility. you get people coming up doing

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better than their parents. >> you know what's interesting about that, back to the profile of immigrants in the u.s. are for hispanics in particular when you look at what is that segment of the fastest growing group of small businesses, it happens to be minority-owned businesses and hispanics two times growing faster than the rest. back to what you were saying, something must be right in the mix that is allowing for new immigrants, people that come here with nothing to be able to realize the so-called american dream we think is dead but when you look at the numbers for small businesses is not dead because they are growing and they're the fastest growing segment. >> krystal, we've talked about the economy and we were talking about disparities. but on social issues, romney has said that he plans no big legislative change in relation to, for example, roe v. wade. if he's elected, do you believe him? >> well, roe v. wade isn't a legislative issue. it's a matter of who he appoints to the supreme court. >> sure.

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so that, therefore, is potentially in the balance. >> there is no way imaginable that he would appoint someone to the supreme court who would uphold roe v. wade. there's just no way that social conservatives in that party would allow him to do that. there's no way republicans would confirm a nominee who would uphold roe v. wade and we have never, ever in any circumstance seen mitt romney stand up to his own party, to his own base when they are bullying him in a certain direction. whether he wants to make social issues the forefront of his presidential term is one question, but his party, we have seen what they have done legislatively and there is no question that issues of controlling women and limiting their access to health care have been at the forefront of their agenda and i fully would expect mitt romney to go along with that. >> to krystal's point, an anna marie, wouldn't romney have helped himself even if he had just stood up to the offensive things rush limbaugh had said

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for example. wouldn't he have helped himself if he could have found some willingness and inclination to defend women in an appropriate manner. he couldn't do it even in relation to someone like sandra fluke. >> i think that's true. i think this is a problem almost every one of mitt romney's flaws come back to his disconnect with how real people live and what real people do. i don't think he understands what it's like to be caught up in something like that. i don't think he understands what it's like to be obviously to be a woman. it's interesting to me, ann romney is such a compelling figure in so many ways, but mitt romney doesn't seem to understand this is not like some social issue that women just care about. that this is an economic issue for women, that being insulted in a public sphere like that is something that happens to women daily and that we don't have the way to fight back that men do in that particular kind of situation. >> i totally agree and it disgusts me as the father of two daughters and i'm married to a woman, that that continues. quick, from all of you, prediction. who is going to win this election? krystal? >> i think president obama is

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going to win, and i don't think it's going to be a particularly late night. >> you don't? >> i don't. i think virginia is going to go for him pretty early. juneau about virginia. >> i'm right there with her. i just saw someone tweet out that virginia had actually a bigger turnout today than 2008. that's fantastic for the president and that does seem to me we're probably not going to be up all night. >> of course, i have to put my latino filter on. the one thing i'm looking forward to, regardless of rooting for the winner, is the fact that we could see history in the making today. if president obama does get 73% of the latino vote, which is what it's been projected, that is record-breaking. we have never seen a president get this number. bill clinton got 72% in 1996. i will be very excited to see history unfold. >> indeed, and so would we. there are a few hours left yet, to make sure you go to the polls. you have been fabulous. next, the clock is ticking. polls in many states close in

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just over two hours. much more from democracy plaza in just a moment. ♪ ♪

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there's still time to vote if you haven't done so already, but the end of this election is drawing closer and closer by the minute, especially here on the east coast. around the country today tens of millions of americans are casting their votes for everything from president of the united states to their local representatives. let's bring in msnbc contributor joy reid, managing editor of thegrio.com and nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. joy, if i can start with you, you're in florida where voters aren't exactly unfamiliar with election day problems.

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apparently a number of voters in pinellas county received robocalls this morning saying that the election was being held tomorrow. what are you seeing in the sunshine state? >> yeah, welcome to florida, martin. this is sort of par for the course. there's always something crazy going on in florida. these sort of shenanigans take place every election cycle. people will get flyers directing them to the wrong precinct or to the wrong day to vote. say, hey, make sure you get out and vote on wednesday. that happened in pinellas county. that's being investigated. you have had reports of some voting machines going down in broward county. i tried for quite a while to get through to the broward county supervisor of elections but surprise, surprise, their media person just happens to be out today. so they're not -- >> they're expecting the election to be tomorrow, that's why the media person is not there today. >> they probably got those calls. but for the most part it's been smooth sailing at least here in orlando in the critical i-4 corridor.

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things seem to be moving along steadily. a good, crisp pace of people going through and a lot of voters. the folks i talked to at both of the polling places, the bigger ones i went to, said it's been a good traffic, steady traffic, no long, long lines because, of course, there are a lot more places to vote than on the early vote days. >> pete williams, we have just heard an extraordinary decision has been taken in new jersey. counting votes until friday. what's going on, pete? >> well, this is a result of the state's decision to try to find a way for people displaced by superstorm sandy to nonetheless vote. what the state said is we're going to allow all those displaced folks to request and send in their ballots by e-mail. so they send the state an e-mail saying i want a ballot. the state e-mails it back. they vote on it and return it to the county. what the state says is that they've simply been overwhelmed with these requests. they can't possibly process them all. so here is what they say. you can request a ballot for the next 20 minutes in new jersey,

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until 5:00 tonight, but you have until friday at 8:00 at night to get that ballot back. so that means technically speaking the vote in new jersey will go all the way through friday evening. now, the election law experts i have talked to, martin, say they have never heard of anything like this happening. it raises an interesting legal question. federal law says that all the states have to choose their presidential electors the same day, and it says if a state flunks that test, there's a fall back, they can appoint their electors as the legislatures may direct. question, does that mean the new jersey legislature then is going to have to say something about how the electors are chosen? what it may all come down to, martin, is this. congress makes the ultimate decision on whether to count a state's electoral votes. the experts i talk to say even the republican controlled house with a republican governor in new jersey is not likely to say we're not going to count new jersey's votes. they're technically in violation even though this was a state brought to its knees by a storm.

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>> indeed. remarkable stuff there in new jersey. joy, you were in ohio last week. you are our roving expert. there are reports of malfunctioning ballot scanners in cleveland, dayton, and toledo. but the latest controversy is about ohio's secretary of state john hustad's decision on how to count provisional ballots, as many as 300,000 may have been cast. what's going on with that? >> yeah. and just to give you a note, i got an update on the cuyahoga county machines. the supervisor of elections who really has the confidence of the voters in that area says that their votes will all be counted even if the machines went down. as far as what john hustad did, he changed the physical ballot that is used -- actually, it's the affirmation you sign on the outside of a professional bvisi. in the law under ohio state law, the part that says what kind of

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i.d. are you using is supposed to be filled out by the election worker. he's made it so the voter has to do it. if they don't, he said don't count that's ballots. that's already gone to federal court. that could be a big problem. >> a huge problem. joi reid in florida and pete williams in washington. thank you both. as americans cast their ballots, we'll continue to bring you special coverage all the way through frlt here. the first polls begin to close in a few hours and a reminder that some states do have split time zones like florida, for example, where a sliver of the panhandle sneaks into the next time zone. we'll be right back. president obama: there's just no quit in america... and you're seeing that right now. over five million new jobs. exports up forty one percent. home values... rising. our auto industry... back. and our heroes are coming home. we're not there yet, but we've made real progress and the... last thing we should do is turn back now.

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here's my plan for the next four years: making education and training a national priority; building on our manufacturing boom; boosting american-made energy; reducing the deficits responsibly by cutting where... we can, and asking the wealthy to pay a little more. and ending the war in afghanistan, so we can... do some nation-building here at home. that's the right path. so read my plan, compare it to governor romney's... and decide which is better for you. it's an honor to be your president... and i'm asking for your vote... so together, we can keep moving america forward. i'm barack obama and i approve this message. and his new boss told him two things -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't know it yet, but he'll work his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and game from the great northwest. he'll start investing early, he'll find some good people to help guide him, and he'll set money aside from his first day of work

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on this night four years ago a huge crowd came together in slit's grand park to send a black man into the white house for the first time. it was a historic and euphoric occasion that was felt across the nation.

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so what should we expect of chicago tonight? ben labolt is national press secretary for the obama for america campaign and he joins us live from headquarters in chicago. good afternoon, ben. >> afternoon, martin. thanks for having me. >> all that's left for the president is his traditional election day basketball game. how confident is your team about tonight's outcome? >> well, you know, the president played basketball before the iowa caucuses, that went well. he didn't before the new hampshire primary, so he wasn't going to make that same mistake again. what's different from this cycle from cycles before is the number of americans who have early voted. it looks like a third of americans will have early voted and those numbers are very encouraging for the president. 70,000 vote margin in nevada coming into election day. 66,000 in iowa. and more than 160,000 in the state of florida. but it all comes down to turnout today. we filled out 208,000 volunteer shifts. our folks are still going to be calling voters across the

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country reminding them to vote until the polls close on the west coast tonight. >> mitt romney has been going around saying if the president wins re-election, then america will face an apocalypse with the end of freedom and the collapse of our judeo-christian foundations, but if romney wins, the affordable care act is repealed, and dodd/frank is never implemented. that feels more like an apocalypse to me. >> well, i'm going to make the prediction that the apocalypse won't happen either way. i'll tell you what will happen. we've made so much progress in the past four years, and the president is going to continue to invest in things like education and research and development to create good paying jobs for the middle class and to reduce the deficit in a balanced way. he's going to make sure we end the war in afghanistan. if mitt romney gets elected, he's going to raise taxes on the middle class to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. we've tried that before. it led to the lowest pace of job creation since world war ii. it's not the apocalypse but it's

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certainly not what the middle class needs right now. he'd return to all the same policies that crashed the economy and devastated the middle class in the first place. >> final question, this campaign is the first since the citizens united decision. just look at the result. we've had mitt romney and outside groups spending $583 million while the president's campaign, $401 million. what did we get from this apart from endless attack ads on television? >> well, i think the one thing that this campaign and this organization will prove tonight is that millions of americans coming together across the country, organizing their own communities and reaching out to their friends and neighbors is more powerful than billions of dollars flooded into the system from millionaires and billionaires putting on the air special interest advertisements to try to protect their own interests. i think average americans calling their friends and neighbors will be much more powerful. >> in the mythical world of mitt romney, he somehow believes he

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will be able to break the gridlock in congress. do you think he will if he wins? >> well, i don't think he's ever governed in a bipartisan way. he was an out of touch leader in massachusetts who cordoned himself off behind a velvet rope and he's endorsed all the tea party ideas during this campaign, so i don't think you'd see that from him. he'd make washington worse. >> ben, thanks so much. thank you for watching. if you have not voted, get out there and vote. chris matthews picks things up next with "hardball." ♪ [ male announcer ] the way it moves. the way it cleans. everything about the oral-b power brush is simply revolutionary. oral-b power brushes oscillate, rotate and even pulsate to gently loosen and break up that sticky plaque with more brush movements than manual brushes and even up to 50% more than leading sonic technology brushes for a superior clean. oral-b power brushes. go to oralb.com for the latest offers.